Katja Tukiainen

Who is Katja Tukiainen?

Katja Maarit Tukiainen is a Finnish painter and comics artist. She was the regional artist of Uusimaa from 1999 to 2001 and the 2003 winner of the Finnish Comic Society's annual Puupää award. In 2007 she received the Finnish State Prize for Design and in 2011 the William Thuring Prize of the Finnish Art Society.

Tukiainen works with site-specific narration. She uses various mediums, according to what best suits the content of her artwork: comics, graphic novels, paintings, drawings, and, recently, animation and video. Her works are recognizable by their joyful colours, specially pink and magenta, sympathetic figures and expressive style, and can deal with themes of sorrow, longing or suffering as well as pleasure, love and peace.

Tukiainen holds a Master's of Art degree from the University of Art and Design Helsinki and a Master's of Fine Arts degree from the Academy of Fine Arts, and has studied painting in the Academy of Fine Arts of Venice, Italy. After graduating, she worked for six months in Mazzano Romano, Italy, and has travelled to India on nine occasions to work for Dalit human rights.

Katja Tukiainen’s paintings have been purchased into various prestigious collections in Finland and her comics have been published in several international anthologies. She is married to her colleague, Matti Hagelberg, and they have one child.